It really might help to drink a lot of water all the time. My foot used to cramp up early in the morning before I got out of bed -- talk about a rude awakening -- and I'm thinking it was because I was getting dehydrated.
Yes! I was told by doctors that it is often related to dehydration. The sudden severe morning cramping has basically stopped since I started drinking water right before bed (which had seemed like not such a good idea.)
I find that I no longer suffer from leg/foot cramps or RLS in bed since my hip replacements; I do find that my hands cramp when I'm dehydrated. The weirdest thing about my body is far from unique; I'm sure many of your readers share it: it's the age-related displacement of hair from where it belongs to everywhere you don't want it. Men suffer from ear hair and bushy eyebrows. I do have some rogue eyebrow hairs, but for the most part my eyebrows are thinning from the outside ends. I could live with that if not for the fact that the eyebrow hairs seem to want to colonize the entire area between my brows and my eyelids, and of course I can no longer see to tweeze them. OTOH, the hair in my armpits is almost invisible, and my leg hair has returned to its prepubertal state, making shaving entirely a formality.
Just finished eating a banana when I read this. I have been having these muscle cramps in the places you describe for as long as I can remember. Yes they are horrible and need to be walked off.
Have you tried restoring electrolytes with pickle juice? You could probably do the same with salt water, but pickle juice has been known to stop muscle cramps
For muscle cramps, there is a product you can buy at CVS called Theraworx; it's a spray-on foam. (It also comes as a cheaper CVS-brand generic called "Foaming Muscle Relief with magnesium sulfate.") I use it when the walking doesn't make the cramp go away.
I get these cramps often. I suspect they're from dehydration and lack of potassium and magnesium, but have also noticed they strike when I stretch my feet or legs just as I'm beginning to wake up. Amazingly, that Theraworx stuff really does work.
Early mornings appear to be eventful at Casa Weingarten-Manteuffel. I recall you mentioning Rachel waking up during one of them to the smell of mushrooms from Lexi's ill-placed hindquarters, and now we learn you are want to do your Festus Haggen (that would be a "Gunsmoke" reference) imitation regularly, hobbling around on cramping body parts. Sounds like the making of an edgy sitcom or soap opera. Maybe "OMG!" or, "What Could Possibly Happen !?" "Darkness Before Dawn ?" "Bedtime for Bonzo Redux"
This is not completely unheard of or uncommon, but the most debilitating thing I get on a regular basis is blepharitis. Without a doubt, for me at least. The outside corner of either eye gets a bump and unbearably itchy and painful. Drs can't even figure out if this is dermatological or ophthalmological. It doesn't directly affect vision, but it makes it hard to keep your eyes open.
I've always heard it called a "charley horse", at least in the calf, which I get if I stretch my leg as I wake up. I've had the arch of the foot a couple of times. The toe is new to me.
Weird thing about my body: one day I discovered by accident that I can write with both hands at the same time, both forward and backward, and forward only with the right while writing backward with the left. I credit actor training with being able to use both hands (you have to get used to using the upstage hand and that is easier if you learn to use both hands well), but no idea when I learned to write with both hands. Both sides of my brain must be equally weird for them to talk to each other like that.
My suggestion for the leg cramps: before you go to bed (and when you wake up), use your feet to trace the alphabet using both feet. Take every vitamin that ends in 'ium' - calcium, magnesium, potassium, taken with milk. I used to suffer from horrible leg cramps in the middle of the night and the only time they come back is when I forget to do these two things: vitamins and spelling the alphabet with my feet before going to bed and waking up.
Lots of things on internet to stop leg cramps, but the causes are still not clear and most of them don't work. My wife and I get cramps fairly often - calfs primarily but toes and other lower body parts also. We used to use quinine which works but was banned because it can cause heart attacks. Then I spotted an internet meme that soap under the covers stops the cramps (https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/how-to-use-soap-in-bed-for-nighttime-leg-cramps). I figured can't hurt. So we tried it and the cramps were greatly reduced. Well they started again after we forgot to use the soap. When we used it, the cramps basically stopped. Any soap works and I have absolutely no idea why it does!
A hiccup in the midst of a swallow only happens every few years, but when they coincide it feels like an epic battle in my chest -- an esophageal tug-o'-war!
It really might help to drink a lot of water all the time. My foot used to cramp up early in the morning before I got out of bed -- talk about a rude awakening -- and I'm thinking it was because I was getting dehydrated.
Yes! I was told by doctors that it is often related to dehydration. The sudden severe morning cramping has basically stopped since I started drinking water right before bed (which had seemed like not such a good idea.)
Maybe it helps, then, to have to get up (move around) frequently to pee.
I find I now have an almost irresistible urge to put a sharp stick in my eye every time I see or hear Donald Trump. Does that count?
I find that I no longer suffer from leg/foot cramps or RLS in bed since my hip replacements; I do find that my hands cramp when I'm dehydrated. The weirdest thing about my body is far from unique; I'm sure many of your readers share it: it's the age-related displacement of hair from where it belongs to everywhere you don't want it. Men suffer from ear hair and bushy eyebrows. I do have some rogue eyebrow hairs, but for the most part my eyebrows are thinning from the outside ends. I could live with that if not for the fact that the eyebrow hairs seem to want to colonize the entire area between my brows and my eyelids, and of course I can no longer see to tweeze them. OTOH, the hair in my armpits is almost invisible, and my leg hair has returned to its prepubertal state, making shaving entirely a formality.
Just finished eating a banana when I read this. I have been having these muscle cramps in the places you describe for as long as I can remember. Yes they are horrible and need to be walked off.
Have you tried restoring electrolytes with pickle juice? You could probably do the same with salt water, but pickle juice has been known to stop muscle cramps
For muscle cramps, there is a product you can buy at CVS called Theraworx; it's a spray-on foam. (It also comes as a cheaper CVS-brand generic called "Foaming Muscle Relief with magnesium sulfate.") I use it when the walking doesn't make the cramp go away.
I get these cramps often. I suspect they're from dehydration and lack of potassium and magnesium, but have also noticed they strike when I stretch my feet or legs just as I'm beginning to wake up. Amazingly, that Theraworx stuff really does work.
Weird thing? A couple of toenails and fingernails grow at twice the rate of the rest.
Fuck them.
Early mornings appear to be eventful at Casa Weingarten-Manteuffel. I recall you mentioning Rachel waking up during one of them to the smell of mushrooms from Lexi's ill-placed hindquarters, and now we learn you are want to do your Festus Haggen (that would be a "Gunsmoke" reference) imitation regularly, hobbling around on cramping body parts. Sounds like the making of an edgy sitcom or soap opera. Maybe "OMG!" or, "What Could Possibly Happen !?" "Darkness Before Dawn ?" "Bedtime for Bonzo Redux"
I picture Gene moving around more like Grandpa Amos from The Real McCoys, with a hitch in his giddyup.
I've heard the quinine in tonic water helps, but maybe it's just the hydration.
the only weird thing is you didn't know about leg cramps.
This is not completely unheard of or uncommon, but the most debilitating thing I get on a regular basis is blepharitis. Without a doubt, for me at least. The outside corner of either eye gets a bump and unbearably itchy and painful. Drs can't even figure out if this is dermatological or ophthalmological. It doesn't directly affect vision, but it makes it hard to keep your eyes open.
I've always heard it called a "charley horse", at least in the calf, which I get if I stretch my leg as I wake up. I've had the arch of the foot a couple of times. The toe is new to me.
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002066.htm
Weird thing about my body: one day I discovered by accident that I can write with both hands at the same time, both forward and backward, and forward only with the right while writing backward with the left. I credit actor training with being able to use both hands (you have to get used to using the upstage hand and that is easier if you learn to use both hands well), but no idea when I learned to write with both hands. Both sides of my brain must be equally weird for them to talk to each other like that.
My suggestion for the leg cramps: before you go to bed (and when you wake up), use your feet to trace the alphabet using both feet. Take every vitamin that ends in 'ium' - calcium, magnesium, potassium, taken with milk. I used to suffer from horrible leg cramps in the middle of the night and the only time they come back is when I forget to do these two things: vitamins and spelling the alphabet with my feet before going to bed and waking up.
Lots of things on internet to stop leg cramps, but the causes are still not clear and most of them don't work. My wife and I get cramps fairly often - calfs primarily but toes and other lower body parts also. We used to use quinine which works but was banned because it can cause heart attacks. Then I spotted an internet meme that soap under the covers stops the cramps (https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/how-to-use-soap-in-bed-for-nighttime-leg-cramps). I figured can't hurt. So we tried it and the cramps were greatly reduced. Well they started again after we forgot to use the soap. When we used it, the cramps basically stopped. Any soap works and I have absolutely no idea why it does!
A hiccup in the midst of a swallow only happens every few years, but when they coincide it feels like an epic battle in my chest -- an esophageal tug-o'-war!